Disclaimer: I am not J.K. Rowling or George Lucas.
Enter Luke, Han, and Leia, in the Great Hall.
Enter Dia.
Dia. No smashball practice.
Luke. [horrified] But I kept my temper. I didn't say anything to her, Dia. I swear I . . .
Dia [miserable] I know. She just said she needed a bit of time to consider.
Han. [angry] Consider what? She's given the Kuns permission. Why not us?
Exit Dia.
Leia. Well, look on the bright side: At least now you'll have time to do Vader's essay.
Luke. [angry] That's a bright side, is it? No smashball practice, and extra Potions?
Luke, Han, and Leia enter Revan Tower, where Luke gets started on Vader's essay.
Enter Phanan, Face, and Janson, testing Agent T-238. Many beings gather around them to purchase the product.
Leia looks on with disapproval.
Luke. [irritable] Just go and stop them, then.
Leia. I can't. They're not technically doing anything wrong. They're quite within their rights to eat the foul things themselves, and I can't find a rule that says the other idiots aren't entitled to buy them, not unless they're proven to be dangerous in some way. And it doesn't look as though they are.
Luke. You know, I don't get why Phanan and Face only got three J.I.T.s each. They really know their stuff.
Leia. Oh, they only know flashy stuff that's of no real use to anyone.
Han. No real use? Leia, they've made about twenty-six dataries already.
Exit all but Luke, Han, and Leia.
Enter Obi-Wan, a holographic image of the Jedi Knight
Obi-Wan.
Obi-Wan. [over holocomm] Hello there.
Luke/Han/Leia. Hello.
Obi-Wan. [over holocomm] How are things?
Luke. Not that good. The Republic has forced through another order, which means we're not allowed to have smashball teams. . . .
Obi-Wan. [over holocomm] Or secret Defense Against the Dark Side groups?
Luke. How did you know about that?
Obi-Wan. [over holocomm] You want to choose your meeting places more carefully. The Wild Karrde, I ask you.
Leia. Well, it was better than Dex's Diner. That's always packed with beings. . . .
Obi-Wan. [over holocomm] Which means you would have been harder to overhear. You've got a lot to learn, Leia.
Luke. Who overheard us?
Obi-Wan. [over holocomm] Ferrier, of course. He was the one under the veil.
Luke. That was Ferrier? What was he doing on the Wild Karrde?
Obi-Wan. [over holocomm] What do you think he was doing? Keeping an eye on you, of course.
Luke. [angry] I'm still being followed?
Obi-Wan. [over holocomm] Yeah, you are. And just as well, isn't it, if the first thing you're going to do on your weekend off is organize an illegal defense group.
Han. Why was Ferrier hiding from us? We would have liked to have seen him.
Obi-Wan. [over holocomm] He was banned from the Wild Karrde twenty years ago. And that bartender's got a long memory. We lost Bel Iblis's spare cloaking device when Quinlan was arrested, so Ferrier has been dressing as a female a lot lately. Anyway . . . first of all, Han, I've sworn to pass on a message from your mother.
Han. [apprehensive] Oh, yeah?
Obi-Wan. [over holocomm] She says on no account whatsoever are you to take part in an illegal secret Defense Against the Dark Side group. She says you will be expelled for sure and your future will be ruined. She says there will be plenty of time to learn how to defend yourself later and that you are too young to be worrying about that right now. She also advises Luke and Leia not to proceed with the group, though she accepts that she has no authority over either of them and simply begs them to remember that she has their best interests at heart. She would have written all this to you, but if the astromech droid had been intercepted you would all have been in real trouble. And she can't say it for herself because she's on duty tonight.
Han. On duty doing what?
Obi-Wan. [over holocomm] Never you mind. Just stuff for the Jedi. So it's fallen to me to be the courier and make sure you tell her I passed it all on, because I don't think she trusts me to.
Luke. So, you want me to say I'm not going to take part in the Defense group?
Obi-Wan. [over holocomm, surprised] Me? Certainly not! I think it's an excellent idea.
Luke. You do?
Obi-Wan. [over holocomm] Of course I do. Do you think your father and I would have lain down and taken orders from an old schutta like Daala.
Luke. But . . . last year all you did was tell me to be careful and not take risks. . . .
Obi-Wan. [over holocomm, impatient] Last year, all the evidence was that someone inside the Jedi Temple was trying to kill you, Luke. This year, we know there's someone outside the Jedi Temple who would like to kill us all, so I think learning to defend yourselves properly is a very good idea.
Leia. And if we do get expelled?
Luke. Leia. This whole thing was your idea.
Leia. [shrugs] I know it was. I just wondered what Obi-Wan thought.
Obi-Wan. [over holocomm] Well, better expelled and able to defend yourselves than sitting safely in the Temple without a clue.
Luke/Han. Hear, hear.
Obi-Wan. [over holocomm] So how are you organizing this group? Where are you meeting?
Luke. Well, that is a bit of a problem now. We don't know where we're going to be able to go.
Obi-Wan. [over holocomm] How about the Valley of the Jedi?
Han. Hey, that's an idea.
Leia snorts skeptically, causing Luke, Han, and Obi-Wan to stare at her.
Leia. Well, Obi-Wan, it's just that there were only four of you meeting in the Valley of the Jedi when you were at the Temple, and all of you could transform into animals. And I suppose you could all have squeezed under a single cloaking device if you'd wanted to. But there are twenty-eight of us and none of us is a Shi'ido, so a cloaking device would be useless. . . .
Obi-Wan. [over holocomm] Fair point. Well, I'm sure you'll come up with something. There used to be a pretty roomy secret passageway behind that transparisteel on the fourth floor. You might have enough space to train in the ways of the Force in there.
Luke. Phanan and Face told me it's blocked. Caved in or something.
Obi-Wan. [over holocomm, frowns] Oh . . . well, I'll have a think and get back to . . .
Enter Daala.
Obi-Wan looks up, alarmed, and exits.
Luke. Obi-Wan? [to Han and Leia] Why did he . . . ?
Leia sees Daala and gasps.
Exit Luke, Han, and Leia, running for their dormitories.
